I anticipate that I will need to claim LTD in the next 2 months. What happens to my employment status with my employer once I move from short term disability to long term disability? My company policy states that they will continue paying benefits to employees on LTD. I am wondering what the legal requirement is. Can they just terminate without cause? Is this likely to happen? Thanks.
Unless you are in a union, then employers can terminate at any time as long as they give you reasonable notice of termination or pay you severance to cover the reasonable notice period. The only limitation on this is that employers can’t terminate someone for one of the protected grounds of discrimination. These protections are given through human rights laws in each province. This is important because people on sick leave can fall under the protection of the “disability discrimination” clause.
So, technically your employer could terminate your employment while you are off on sick leave…as long as they could prove your termination had nothing to do with your sickness. In reality, it is very rare for an employer to ever terminate an employee on sick leave because they want to avoid any appearance of discrimination.
So what happens is that the employer will allow you to say on a sick leave for as long as you continue to give them confirmation from a doctor that you remain medically unable to do your job. They have to hold your job for up to 4 years and have an obligation to try and accommodate you to return to work with them in your old job or some other job better suited to your limitations and abilities.
How long you can stay on the company medical plan depends on your employer’s policy on this. I have seen it that people can stay on as long as they want and in other cases it can be as little as 3 months.
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My husbands of on ltd his employer calls wants him off medical benefits as it is “costing them money” the calls are devastating to him (off on depression". HE finally said ok take me off they said they would mail him papers.they never did and no more calls for over a month. SO confused. I have place him as primary on my benefits awaiting the benefits card so we can het his meds. Isnt that horŕid for a company to do.he worked there 30+ years. Just venting thanks.
I’m pretty sure I lose extended health benefits as soon as I get LTD benefits.
We do not consider you to be actively at work if you are receiving
disability benefits or are participating in a partial disability or
rehabilitation program.
Not necessarily. Depends on your policy. When you go on LTD you may continue to receive your health benefits. In which case the insurer will waive the fee that is currently paid.
That discrimination. They have an obligation to continue benefits if his policy states that.
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I updated my post with a quote from the benefits booklet.